3D Video Recorder: a System for Recording and Playing Free‐Viewpoint Video†

We present the 3D Video Recorder, a system capable of recording, processing, and playing three‐dimensional video from multiple points of view. We first record 2D video streams from several synchronized digital video cameras and store pre‐processed images to disk. An off‐line processing stage converts these images into a time‐varying 3D hierarchical point‐based data structure and stores this 3D video to disk. We show how we can trade‐off 3D video quality with processing performance and devise efficient compression and coding schemes for our novel 3D video representation. A typical sequence is encoded at less than 7 Mbps at a frame rate of 8.5 frames per second. The 3D video player decodes and renders 3D videos from hard‐disk in real‐time, providing interaction features known from common video cassette recorders, like variable‐speed forward and reverse, and slow motion. 3D video playback can be enhanced with novel 3D video effects such as freeze‐and‐rotate and arbitrary scaling. The player builds upon point‐based rendering techniques and is thus capable of rendering high‐quality images in real‐time. Finally, we demonstrate the 3D Video Recorder on multiple real‐life video sequences. ACM CSS: I.3.2 Computer Graphics—Graphics Systems, I.3.5 Computer Graphics—Computational Geometry and Object Modelling, I.3.7 Computer Graphics—Three‐Dimensional Graphics and Realism     

A Survey of Inverse Rendering Problems

Inverse rendering problems usually represent extremely complex and costly processes, but their importance in many research areas is well known. In particular, they are of extreme importance in lighting engineering, where potentially costly mistakes usually make it unfeasible to test design decisions on a model. In this survey we present the main ideas behind these kinds of problems, characterize them, and summarize work developed in the area, revealing problems that remain unsolved and possible areas of further research. ACM CSS: I.3.6 Computer Graphics Methodology and Techniques I.3.7 Computer Graphics—Three‐Dimensional Graphics and Realism I.4.1 Image Processing and Computer Vision Digitization and Image Capture I.4.7 Image Processing and Computer Vision Feature Measurement I.4.8 Image Processing and Computer Vision Scene Analysis